/ 




A 



V S the name indicates, this book 
deals entirely with the broad 
and important question of 

how to have a thoroughly sanitary 

school. 

"School Sanitation" was 
written and designed so as to 
be readily understood by all who 
read it and we feel that the infor- 
mation contained therein is of 
such value as to merit a careful 
perusal by all those interested in 
this important subject. 

We will appreciate any sug- 
gestions or information which will 
tend to make future issues of this 
book more valuable. 




<^nt 



•(TV— C 



Published by 

Standard cSamtat© iPfe. Co. 

Pittsburgh. Pa. 



v 



! 



\ 



.^v 



Copyrighted 1913. by 

Standard <Satntatrs lt)&. Co. 

Pittsburgh, Pa. 



)CI.A347809 
AW) / 




QKI®®IL S^MI!T^TI!©M 



w 



BY THE AUTHOR OF 

History of Sanitation 
Principles and Practice of Plumbing 
Sewage Purification and Disposal 
Wrought Pipe Drainage Systems 
Plumbing Plans and Specifications 
Plumbing Estimates and Contracts 
Design of the Turkish Bath 
Sanitary Refrigeration 
and Ice Making 

several of which books are widely 
used as texts in colleges and schools 
teaching sanitation, plumbing 
architecture and allied subjects. 




Above Books Publisked by 

Standard <Samtars IDfe- Co. 

Publishing Department 

Pittsturgk, Pa. 




CONTENTS 



SCHOOL SANITATION 

The Child is Father to the Man 
Vocational Training in Schools 
Vandalism of Childhood 
Study of Child Nature 
Water Closets and Urinals 
Location of Toilet Rooms 
Toilet Accommodations in the 

Kindergarten 
Number of Fixtures Required 
Types of Water Closets 
Urinals and Urinal Compart- 
ments 
Water Closet Compartments 
Ventilation of Toilet Rooms 
Local-Vent Closets 
Teachers' Retiring Room 
Janitor's Room and Slop-Sink 
Emergency Room or Infirmary 
What Others Are Doing 
Public Convenience Stations in 

Schools 
Public Baths in the Schools 
Bathing Facilities in the Schools 
Swimming Pools 
Drinking Water for Schools 
Water Filters 
Operation of Filters 
School Kitchens for Domestic 

Science 
Lunches for the School Child- 
ren 
Drinking Fountains 
Sewage Disposal 
The Heating and Ventilation 

of Schools 
Quality of Heat 
School Ventilation 
The Food for School Children 



HYGIENE OF THE BATH 

Structure of the Skin 

Oil Glands 

The Hair 

Sweat Glands 

Functions of the Skin 

Effect of Oil on the Skin 

Pigment Cells 

Functions of the Sweat Glands 

Interchangeability of function 
of Sweat Glands and Kid- 
neys 

Comparison of matter thrown 
off by skin, kidneys and 
other organs 

Temperature man can with- 
stand 

Benefits of Bathing 

Cold- Water Baths 

Tepid Baths 

Warm Baths 

Hot Baths 

Comparison of Hot and Cold 
Baths 

Vapor Baths 

Hot-air Baths 

Routine of the Turkish Bath 

Routine of the Russian Bath 

Effect produced by Water 
Treatment 

Effect of temperature when 
bathing 

Use of soap in bathing 





Ih 

QQ h 





AN I TAT I ON in the school 
house is of far more importance 
than in any other type of 
building, for while in other 
buildings the chief ends to be 
considered are health, and 
economy of operation and 
maintenance, in the school 
there are health, EDUCATION 
and economy of operation and maintenance. Even 
more., — the Protection to health afforded by good 
sanitation is of greater importance during the growing 
and formative period of childhood than ever after, 
for "as the twig is bent the tree's inclined;" and in 
after years when the child is a man, he can run away 
from foul surroundings, whereas the Truant Officer 
permits no escape from the danger and disgust of 
foul school sanitation. 

Every consideration it would seem demands that 
the best, and only the best, of sanitation be provided, 
particularly in the elementary schools of the country; 
yet, in spite of this fact, nowhere will worse plumbing 
and poorer sanitary conditions generally be found, 
than in the elementary schools of the Nation. 

The reason for this state of affairs is to be found, 
not in a desire of those in charge to economize, or a 
feeling that anything is good enough for the children, 
but from a lack of knowledge of just what provisions 
should be made for the schools to give the children the 
best of sanitary protection. To remedy that condition, 
this chapter is written. 

The Child is The first mistake it would seem 

Father to arises from looking upon the school 

the Man children as sort .of feeble minded 

from their extreme youth, and treat- 
ing them as we would if they were unable to take care 
of themselves. No greater error could be made, 
however, or no greater injustice done to childhood. 
Man is only boy grown tall. In natural aptitude, 
quickness to discern, and a desire to find out "how 
the wheels go round" he can not be ranked in a class 
with the children he underrates. If the boy does 



not understand how a fixture is operated when he 

first goes to school, he will not be there many days 

before he knows more about it than men who have 

been using them for years. 

^JP What ought to be done then is make no distinc- 

^ tion between child and adult, but fit up the sanitary 

accommodations for children in the schools the same 

as would be done for adults. In the home the child 

uses — and does not abuse — the plumbing fixtures; 

then why should we expect him to abuse them in 

the school house? By far the great majority of 

children have sanitary appliances in the home and 

are entirely familiar with them. Those who have no 

sanitary appliances in the home, must and should 

have access to them in the schools. It is part of 

their education, necessary to their success later in 

life. What profit it, then, to teach a child all the 

languages both living and dead, if he is not first 

taught the common decencies of life? The school is 

the place to learn the things that can not be learned 

at home, and if the right use and care of sanitary 

appliances are among the things to be learned, how 

can it be taught if barn-yard accommodations only 

are provided in the schools? 

Vocational The tendency of the times is 

Training in towards vocational instruction. It 
Schools is a recognition by educators of 

the fact that he is most highly 
educated who can do the greatest number of useful 
things. It is a placing of useful knowledge ahead of 
polish and finish, and in keeping with that tendency 
schools of the future will teach swimming, dancing, 
sanitation, hygiene, household economy, business in 
all its branches, before they take up the dead languages 
and higher mathematics. Sanitation, and the use of 
sanitary appliances, then, becomes an important 
part of one's training or education. He must acquire 
it somewhere before he can succeed in life, and in the 
school is where he should receive his first lessons. 
Here he must see the best of plumbing fixtures, the 
same as he must see the best of pictures, to cultivate 
in him a high, not a low, taste for art or sanitation. 



SCHOOL SANITATION 



It is erroneously believed that school children are 
destructive and will wantonly mar, deface or destroy 
a valuable fixture. It is even pointed out that the 
isolated out-buildings of old were defaced by knife 
marks, and covered with low rhyme and verse. 




Where some of the little tots — school 
children — come from. Where can they learn 
the care and use of plumbing fixtures, and 
the principle of Sanitation, if not in Schools? 
They are our future citizens, the "people"; 
and their school training should fit them for 
their duties as such. 



Vandalism of The logic is not good, however, 

Childhood which draws that conclusion from 

such evidence. Duplicate the con- 
ditions inside a school building which existed in the 
old out-house, and the actions will be repeated. It 
is the condition, not inherent destructiveness 
which causes the act. We all hate the ugly, the foul 
and filthy, and children are no exceptions to the 
rule. They show it in all their actions. It is only the 
dirty, the ugly and filthy they destroy. They kill 
snakes, lizards, toads and other reptiles, but seldom 
destroy pretty flowers, delicate china or pretty 
pictures. They will stone the windows out of an old 
tumble-down deserted "haunted house," while the 
attractive well-kept building can stand vacant for 
months without one boy throwing a stone at it. 



If, then, we place the children's toilet accommoda- 
tions in a dark cellar and give them filthy fixtures in 
dull or dirty surroundings, they will use them, just 
as adults would, with a feeling of loathing, whenever 
forced to avail themselves of the doubtful advantages. 
And dreading to touch the devices, they will not be 
over scrupulous as to the manner of using them; 
while should they become broken or destroyed, a 
fierce exultation will overwhelm them, "even as you 
and I." 

Study of The lesson we learn from the 

Child Nature study of child nature then is to 
provide the best and most approved 
sanitary fixtures, in which nothing is allowed to 
remain and fester, an eye-sore to all who must use 
them, but from which the contents are whisked 
out leaving the fixture sweet and clean after each use. 
Set these fixtures in a room flooded with light, bathed 
in pure fresh air, and surrounded with walls and floors 
of impervious materials smooth and white, and the 
main principles of school sanitation have been com- 
plied with. 

There may be variation in the design of fixtures 
used, and the way they are installed; but the require- 
ments of light, air, color and cleanliness are absolute. 
If the toilet accommodations are clean and white, 
located in bright cheerful rooms which are scrupulously 
clean and well ventilated, the most pronounced vandal 
among the children will not feel inclined to deface any 
portion of the room or equipment. On the contrary, 
they will take pride in it. 

Water Closets As the water closets and urinals 

and Urinals comprise the bulk of the plumbing 
work in school buildings, and as 
these fixtures take care of the most objectionable 
parts of the sewage, it is but natural that they come 
in for the greater part of the consideration. 

It is assumed that every school, whether city or 
country, will install the proper and necessary water 
closets and urinals. The accident near Cincinnati 
a few years ago in which nine school children suffered 
most loathsome deaths when the floor of an out-house 
gave way precipitating them into the contents of the 
vault beneath, where they were smothered, is enough 
to deter any community from resorting to that dis- 
gusting and unsanitary practice. With the simple 
methods of sewage disposal now available, even 
schools remote from public sewers can have modern 
sanitary appliances; and there is no community so 
poor, nor any school so unimportant, that it can get 
along without them. This is particularly true now 
that a movement is sweeping over the country 
having for its object the use of schools as civic centers 
where meetings can be held, questions of the day de- 



SCHOOL SANITATION 



bated, dances given, and other amusements provided 
for. In view, then, of the various uses the school 
building of the future will be put to, even in the 
rural districts, it cannot depend for its sanitary 
arrangements on an exposed shed in the school yard. 

Location of The location of toilet rooms in 

Toilet Rooms school buildings is now considered 
differently for kindergarten and 
primary schools than for advanced schools and 
colleges. In advanced schools and colleges the 
practice in the past was to group all the fixtures 
together in one place, usually 
the basement of the building, 
and less frequently in a de- 
tached building which was 
seldom heated and which 
was otherwise deficient in 
sanitary requirements. 
More recently, however, the 
tendency is to break away 
from that unsatisfactory 
practice, and treat school 
buildings so far as toilet 
accommodations are con- 
cerned, as office buildings, 
hotels or other public struc- 
tures. That is, place 
separate toilet rooms on 
each floor of the building so 
that students from the 
several floors will have 
separate accommodations. 
Such practice breaks the 
entire student body up into 
several scattered groups, 
avoids overcrowding with 
consequent carelessness, 
and seems to give better 
satisfaction in every way. 



Urinals are dispensed with in these toilet rooms, 
the same as in the home; and indeed the toilet rooms 
resemble to a great extent the toilet accommodations 
in a private house with which the children are 
supposed to be familiar. 

The separate class-room toilets are conducive 
to better morals, discipline and sanitation, and the 
pupils can be trained in the proper use of plumbing 
fixtures if they do not get that training at home. 
It cuts out a source of moral contamination that 
exists in the congregate closet system, where a score 
or more of children can meet at any time, to learn all 




Into these "homes" the gospel of Sanitation can find its way, only 
through the medium of the Schools. 

Clean bodies, clean surroundings and clean Sanitary appliances in 
the school rooms, set a standard they will try to live up to in the home. 
The little girl in the picture shows unmistakably the refining influence 
of good school surroundings. 



Toilet Accom- In kindergarten and primary 

modations in schools for pupils under the age of 
the Kinder- twelve to fourteen years, the toilet 
garten accommodations for each classroom 

may well be located in separate and 
individual toilet rooms adjoining the class rooms. 
To reach the toilet rooms it is well to arrange the 
floor plan so the children will have to pass through 
a clothes room first, as by this arrangement any em- 
barrassment due to self-consciousness is relieved, and 
at the same time owing to the two doors sound will 
have to pass through, it will be pretty well deadened. 
Of course noiseless operating closets should be used 
in these toilet rooms so the original noise will be 
reduced to the minimum. 



sorts of evil as well as do damage or commit nuisance 
with little fear of detection. 

In the children's toilet rooms, children's closets 
12 inches in height may very satisfactorily be used. 
Likewise the lavatories should be set lower than the 
regulation height so the children can use them with- 
out inconvenience. 

Number of In the United States there are 

Fixtures no standard rules for apportioning 

Required water closets and urinals in schools, 

and the only guides are plumbing 
equipments now in successful operation and found 
sufficient. Judged by this standard about one water 
closet is required for each fifty male students or 



SCHOOL SANITATION 



fraction thereof, and two urinals for the same num- 
ber. For the girls, at least two water closets should 
be provided for the same number. In cases where 
separate water-closet compartments adjoin class 
rooms, one water closet for twenty-five children will 
be found the greatest possible limit, and one to twenty 
would prove safer. In the matter of water-closet 
accommodations it is better to be liberal than not 
have enough, for at the worst, a less number of 
fixtures are required in schools than in almost any 
other class of building where a large number of 
people congregate. This is due to the fact that schools 
are used for only a few hours during the day, and the 



TABLE I 

Number of Toilet Fixtures for Schools 



NUMBER OF CLOSETS 


WATER CLOSETS 


URINALS 


GIRLS 


BOYS 


INFANTS 


BOYS 


Under 30 Children 


2 


1 


2 


2 


30 to 50 Children 


2 


2 


3 


3 


50 to 70 Children 


4 


2 


3 


4 


70 to 100 Children 


5 


3 


4 


5 


100 to 150 Children 


6 


3 


5 


7 


150 to 200 Children 


8 


4 


6 


10 


200 to 300 Children 


12 


5 


8 


15 




BATHING IS LARGELY A MATTER OF CONVENIENCE. 

How many who delight in their morning baths would take them 
regularly if they had to take a cart-load of goods out of the tub first, 
and replace them when through? In many tenement "homes" space 
is so crowded that the bath tub — when there is one — must of necessity 
be used for something else. Perhaps for a bed. A bath filled with 
household goods is shown in this illustration. 

Reverse conditions and place the dwellers of such quarters in cul- 
tured surroundings, and they would one and all become devoters of the 
bath; while those who take their morning baths now, if forced to dwell 
in such surroundings, would soon slip back into the great army of the 
unwashed. 



closet accommodations are more for emergency cases 
than for regular use. 

In Great Britain the number of closets and urinals 
required in schools has been given considerable study, 
and has received official action. The number of 
closets and urinals required for schools of different 
sizes can be found in Table I. 



Types of The 

Water Closets water 
closet for 
school work must be of 
vitreous porcelain or 
porcelain enameled ware, 
enameled on the inside and 
outside; of the siphon 
action type containing a 
sufficient body of water 
to completely submerge 
and deodorize the contents. 
Simplicity of construction 
and operation, together 
with strength and dura- 
bility are among the 
essentials. The closets 
may be seat operated, or 
operated by hand. When 
seat operated closets are 
to be used, however, great 
care should be exercised in 
selecting them, for the 
water closet is the most 
abused fixture in the 
plumbing installation, and 
only the best of seat action 
closets will stand the wear 
and tear without soon get- 
ting out of order and 
proving ever after a source 
of annoyance and expense. 
There is no reason why 
a seat action closet should 
be selected instead of the ordinary type. The pupil 
will surely know enough to operate the closet after 
use, and if not, the school is the place for him to 
learn this simple matter of decency. 

Quick and strong siphonic action, small fouling 
space, thorough imperviousness of the materials, 
strength and durability are among the qualities to 



SCHOOL SANITATION 



be looked for in a school closet. Added to these 
must be a metal-to-metal connection to the soil pipe, 
for no water closet can be considered sanitary which 
depends upon putty, a gasket or a slip-joint for a 
seal. Likewise a flexible section of soil pipe should 
be used to protect the closet from damage due to 
settlements, shrinkages, expansions and contrac- 
tions of the building or drainage system. 

Urinals and There are two types of urinals 

Urinal Com- now in use, one a urinal bowl 
partments attached to the wall or to the back 

of a urinal stall; the other a stall 
over the back of which water flows in a thin film. 
When urinal bowls are to be used, they should be of 
the design which contains a body of water and can 
be flushed after use the same 
as a water closet. When urinal 
stalls without urinal bowls are 
to be installed, they should be 
of some non-absorbent mater- 
ial having a smooth enamel 
or gloss, or capable of taking 
a high polish like marble. 
A light tone, white or cream 
color, is advisable as it 
reflects the light better into 
dark recesses, looks cleaner 
at all times, shows dirt so 
the janitor will have to keep 
it clean, and presents a bright 
attractive appearance. Dark 
gray and black slabs, while 
they might be non-absorbent, 
hide the dirt, absorb the light, 
and never look clean and 
attractive. Besides they 
seldom take a high polish. 
These remarks about urinal 
slabs apply whether the 
material is to be used simply 
as stalls for urinal bowls, or 
form the urinals themselves, 
and over which the water 
flows. 



Water Closet The rooms in which water 

Compart- closets and urinals are installed 

ments must be bright, well lighted, cheer- 

ful, free from odor and finished with 
non-absorbent materials. The floors are best finished 
with tile. Cement is not impervious and is not a 
suitable material for around closets or urinals. The 
walls may be of marble, tile, glass or similar materials 
of a light color, while the closet stalls are best made 
of some light colored impervious and fire-proof 
material like marble or structural glass. Such 
materials are easy to keep clean, require no painting 
or varnishing, and save in upkeep what they cost 
originally. Artificial lights should be located above 
the closet compartments so that a flood of light will 




When the stalls are to 
be used as urinals without 
any bowls, a suitable flush- 
ing device is necessary to 

insure a thorough distribution of water over the entire 
area to be flushed. This is a very important con- 
sideration for the reason that very few devices will 
continue to operate satisfactorily spreading the water 
over the entire surface. Some of the parts clog with 
rust or sediment from the water, thereby leaving 
parts of the slabs without being flushed. 



This is a photographic reproduction of a boys' urinal in a school 
building. Just fancy the sanitary condition of that school ! Has 
a truant officer any right to force children against their will, to attend 
a school where such accommodations only are found ? Would you be over 
scrupulous about the way you used this "convenience?" Can you blame 
boys for destroying it in the hope that they will get better, and with 
full knowledge that what they do get cannot be worse? 

What sort of ideals of sanitation and cleanliness will boys imbibe 
at a school where such conditions exist! 

Can the moral tone of childhood be improved by such conditions? 



make known the condition of the stall and seat. 

Ventilation of To keep the toilet rooms free 

Toilet Rooms from odor, particularly in cold 
weather when the windows are 
closed, it is necessary where a number of water 
closets and urinals are grouped together, to have 



SCHOOL SANITATION 




GIRLS' "TOILET ROOM" IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL. 

Would YOU send YOUR daughter — would you permit her to attend 
a school with such accommodations? 

Where is the refining influence, the air of culture about such con- 
veniences? Depend on it, no such toilet accommodations are found 
in the good private schools of the country where girls are sent to be 
"finished." The plea of economy might explain but cannot excuse such 
a toilet room in a public school. No matter how poor the community, 
there is enough wealth to make the improvements necessary. If not, 
publication of the fact will bring to the fore some public spirited citizen, 
who will donate the necessary equipment. 



the room well ventilated. It might be well to say 
a word of warning here against constructing a toilet 
room which is entered by descending a few steps from 
the corridor. Such design brings the doorway leading 
to the toilet room near the ceiling of the toilet room 
where the hottest air and foulest odors rise. The 
result is, the moment the door is opened the nostrils 
are assailed with an overpowering stench, while 
much of the foul air escapes to the corridor and to 
other rooms of the building. 

This condition should be carefully guarded 
against and with a little forethought and study 
can be entirely eliminated. On the following 
pages the question of ventilating the toilet room 
is described more in detail. It is a subject of 
great importance and should receive careful con- 
sideration. 



These local vents must have 
an area each of at least eight 
square inches, and must be 
connected to a vent shaft hav- 
ing a positive draft insured 
by mechanical means. 

Instead of ventilating 
the rooms through the local 
vents of the several closets, 
they may be vented through 
registers located back of the 
closets. Either method may 
be employed in the boys' 
toilet rooms, local conditions 
determining in each case 
which is the better. If, for 
instance, the toilet room is 
at a lower level than the 
approach to the room, as 
previously explained, the 
better practice by far would 
be to vent through the closets. 
If there is any reason 
to believe that the air of 
the room would be heavy, the 
local vent method would be 
the one to adopt. Otherwise, 
either method will give very 
satisfactory results. 

In the Girls' toilet room, 
however, for hygienic reasons 
the rooms should be vented 

through registers back of the closets, not through 

local vents in the closets. 



Teachers' 

Retiring 

Room 



Local-Vent There are special local-vent 

Closets closets made for the purpose of 

ventilating the rooms through the 
closet bowls, when a number of fixtures are grouped 
together as they generally are in public buildings. 



In addition to the general toilet 
accommodations for the students, 
each floor of a school building should 
be provided with a retiring room 
and toilet accommodations for the teachers. 

This is a detail too often overlooked in the 
design of school buildings although it is as necessary 
as toilet accommodations for the children. The 
teachers should not be forced to mingle or associate 
with the children on the intimate terms common to 
the democratic surrounding of a public toilet room. 
It is liable to breed familiarity, a condition that 
should not exist. 

Janitor's On each floor of the building 

Room and provision should be made for a 

Slop-Sink closet or room in which the janitor 

can keep his cleaning implements; 
and a slop-sink at which he can draw clean water 
and dispose of the waste water from scrubbing 
and cleaning. If a slop-sink is not provided, he must 



SCHOOL SANITATION 



of necessity use the closet bowls for disposing of the 
waste water, and this is sure to damage the closets, 
no doubt breaking many of them, for they are not 
designed for that rough service. A janitor's slop- 
sink on each floor of the building will pay for itself 
over and over again each year in the saving of wear 
and tear on the other fixtures. 

Emergency A provision which should be made 

Room or in all large buildings where a number 

Infirmary of people congregate, and which is 

particularly desirable in a school 
building, is a room set aside as an infirmary and 



an infirmary has been neglected to a great extent 
in the past, but it is more than likely that the action 
of a few of the Eastern cities, notably Boston, in 
providing medical supervision for the schools will 
be followed throughout the United States when the 
benefits derived from the system become known. 

What Others In the matter of supervising 

Are Doing the health of school children, we 

are very far behind many other 
nations which we do not consider in our class. Argen- 
tine, Belgium, Bulgaria, England, France, Japan, 
Sweden and Switzerland make national provision for 




RANGE OF CLOSETS IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL IN ST. LOUIS 
There is no evidence of vandalism here. The walls and floors are fresh and 

clean. The air is pure, no odors can permeate the building; the children learn the 

use, the convenience and the comfort of good sanitary appliances; while last but not 

least, the moral tone of the place is elevated. 

Note the ventilation ducts near the ceiling. They are large enough to keep 

the rooms from getting foul no matter how much the room is used. 



equipped with the fixtures necessary for emergency 
cases. For instance, there should be a lavatory, a 
water closet, bath tub, and possibly a hospital sink, 
while in cities where the school children have their 
teeth examined, a practice which might well be 
adopted in every city, the necessary fixtures for the 
dental purposes would be required. Provision for 



the medical inspection of school children, while in 
America and Germany the practice has not become 
general, only certain of the cities having taken up 
the work. 

In Boston, at the present time, a nurse is in 
charge of the physical welfare of the children in each 
school, to assist in testing the sight, hearing and other 



SCHOOL SANITATION 




THE OLD SWIMMIN' HOLE. 

Do you remember what a lure to you was 
the old swimmin' hole, where, after a re- 
freshing dip you could lie on a grassy bank, 
listening to the hum of insects close by? 

It was the water made you play truant. 
School was a prison and you were a captive. 
Better freedom and a thrashing than a dull 
afternoon in the school room. 



senses of the pupils, with a view of correcting any 
infirmity which might prevent their applying them- 
selves to their studies as they should. In addition 
the nurses are always on the lookout to detect symp- 
toms of contagious diseases like measles, mumps, 
whooping-cough and fevers. 

In order that the nurse 
will have the proper facilities 
and a suitable place to con- 
duct her examinations, an 
infirmary will be found in- 
dispensable in schools which 
contemplate medical super- 
vision. Even where there 
is no medical supervision, 
an infirmary containing the 
fixtures enumerated, and a 
couch to lie on should be 
provided. Fainting fits, and 
other weaknesses are not 
uncommon where a number 
of children are gathered to- 
gether, and a suitable place 
should be provided for the 
treatment of the patient in 
such cases. 



nine months of the year. Out of 365 days of the 
year, on not more than half of them are the schools 
put to any use whatever. 

This state of affairs, in line with the doctrine of 
conservation of resources, has led to a movement 
towards the more general use of the school buildings 
after hours, dedicating them to as many uses as can 
reasonably be done, without conflicting with the chief 
and foremost purpose, education or training of the 
young. 

The necessity for public convenience stations 
in all parts of every city has been recognized for many 
years, but the cost has restricted them to the crowded 
business sections only, leaving the various outlaying 
districts without any conveniences of a public nature, 
outside of saloons and like places. Now, however, 
there is relief in sight. There is no reason why a 
portion of each school building can not be set aside 
for this very purpose, with benefit to every one in 
the entire community. There is more or less waste 
space in the basement of every school building which 
could easily be put to this purpose. And the cost 
would be trifling, amounting only to the expense of 
installing the plumbing work. 




NOON TIME AND JUNE TIME, DOWN BY THE RIVER." 



Youth is the time of enjoyment, of activity, when the imagination 
is fired with thought and stories of adventure, and nowhere can the 
imagination be given greater license than on the water, be it lake, stream, 
ocean or canal. It is likewise the time when imagination and action 
must be guided in the right direction, for the truant age of boyhood is 
one of the turning points of life. 



Public There is no other public prop- 

Convenience erty, perhaps, which is used so little 
Stations in in proportion to its cost, yet which 
Schools could be put to more extensive use 

than the school houses. Hundreds 
of millions of dollars are invested in school property 
in each large city of the country, and the schools 
are used only six or seven hours a day for less than 



Public Baths In addition to the closet accom- 

in the modations, public baths may be, 

Schools and in some cities are provided in 

the school buildings. Baths for 
the school children are common to the schools in 
many cities, while in others the benefits of the bath 
are being extended, after school hours, to the public 
at large. For this a small fee can be charged, if 



SCHOOL SANITATION 



necessary, making this new department self-sup- 
porting if not actually a source of revenue. Turkish 
baths ought to be made an important department of 
the bathing facilities, where from fifteen to twenty- 
five cents a person could have the benefit of this 
remedial treatment. Popular-price Turkish baths 



every public school into a public bath house and public 
convenience station, to be used after school hours. 
This would not only give the public greater use of the 
public schools, but would provide conveniences for 
the entire population which are badly needed now, 
and help defray the cost of the public schools. 




THE SUCCESSOR OF THE OLD SWIMMING HOLE 

No clam shells here to cut the feet. Every convenience is here provided, tem- 
perature, depth, pure water, games, companions, instructors, light and heat. Showers 
in the back ground are for washing before entering the pool, to keep the water in 
its original purity as long as possible. 

There will be no truancy in the schools provided with these accommodations, 
and the physical development of the children will be bettered, training of the mind 
and body going hand in hand so each pupil will be well balanced. 



are as necessary as ordinary baths, and in the school 
buildings can be worked out many of the problems 
of inexpensive conveniences for the citizens. The 
plunge bath is fast becoming a part of every school 
equipment, and all that remains to make a fully- 
equipped Turkish bath are a couple of hot rooms, 
which are easily provided. Under the new order of 
affairs, the class rooms are to be used for public 
meetings; but the usual sanitary equipment of the 
building, consisting of toilet rooms and sanitary 
drinking fountains, will be found sufficient to take 
care of the public. In fact, outside of the public 
toilet rooms, and the Turkish-bath hot-rooms, very 
little extra equipment would be necessary to convert 



Bathing The principle is fast becoming 

Facilities in recognized that we ought to have 
the Schools facilities for bathing in the schools 
as well as in prisons and other 
institutions where a large number of people are 
thrown together. As a result, the installing of shower 
baths in school buildings has become a settled practice 
in some cities, where particularly in the poorer quarters 
each new pupil is initiated by a bath before taking 
up his studies with the rest of the children. But it 
is not in the poor quarters only that bathing facilities 
are provided and used. Showers and lockers to hold 
the clothes while the children are bathing are provided 
in all the public schools in those cities and the way the 



SCHOOL SANITATION 



children take to them shows they fill a long felt 
want. Boys who object to the usual tubbing at home, 
take kindly to the showers, particularly so as it is 
the final touch after exercising in the gymnasium or 
playing on the school ground. Indeed, the showers 
become a necessary part of most school buildings now 
that gymnasiums and playgrounds where athletic 
sports are held are becoming part of every well- 
equipped school building. After a game of basket- 
ball, football or a half hour in the gymnasium a shower 
bath is almost indispensable to the exercisers. 

Swimming The teaching of swimming is 

Pools being considered seriously by school 

authorities throughout the country, 
as it has been by educational authorities in Great 
Britain and Europe, where swimming pools in school 
buildings are by no means uncommon. In this 
country, likewise, swimming pools have been pro- 
vided in the school buildings of some cities, and no 
doubt the benefits derived will cause their use to 
spread to other cities. Many of the old school readers 
tell the story of a scientist being ferried across the 
river by a man of no education, whom he quizzed as 
to the studies he was proficient in. Upon being told 





GOOD CITIZENS IN THE MAKING. 

School athletics, in which all take part as competitors for the good 
of health, not a few for the glory of records, build up the body, and 
knit together the children in a common bond of interest. Athletic 
games make the boys manly; develop quick judgment and self reliance, 
besides keeping them off the streets and from places of questionable 
morality. If gymnasium, showers, lockers, pool and other equipment 
did no more, they would justify the cost. Good men and women are 
the greatest works of nature, and it is the province of education to aid 
nature in the work. 



the boatman knew nothing about algebra, the 
scientist told him that one quarter of his life had 
been lost. Two or three other studies the boatman 



WHY DO BOYS PLAY TRUANT? 

When in quest of occupation and adven- 
ture. They want to swim; they want to learn 
to dive; they want to splash around in the 
cool waters of their usual aquatic haunts. 
The one way to keep them from playing 
truant, is to provide for them in the school the 
attraction they seek for outside. Fit up a 
swimming pool in the school, interest the boys 
in water games, and no lure offered by the 
great out doors will tempt them from their 
companions and their sports. 

knew nothing about, proved to the scientist's mind 
that most of the poor boatman's life had been lost 
or wasted. Just then he noticed that the boatman 
was taking off his coat. Upon 
asking what was the matter, 
the boatman inquired, could 
he swim. Upon replying 
"No," "then" replied the 
boatman "the whole of your 
life is lost, for the boat has 
sprung a leak and will soon 
go to the bottom." 

The moral of that lesson 
taught widespread through- 
out the United States is now 
being applied and in inland 
cities where natural bodies of 
water are lacking in which 
children can learn to swim, 
the providing of swimming 
pools becomes as necessary 
as equipment for any other 
branch of education. When 
all the children of the land 
are taught to take care of 
themselves in the water, and 
how to handle others who 
cannot swim, there will be a 
smaller annual toll of deaths 
from drowning, and fewer 
people who "rock the boat" 
when on the water. To preserve life would seem 
to be as important as to support oneself; and it 
would seem better to teach a boy to swim, than to 



SCHOOL SANITATION 



teach him a smattering of some dead language which 
he will forget as soon as he is out of school. 

Where natural water courses are at hand, the 
providing of swimming pools is not so necessary, 
although it would seem that the art of swimming 
should be taught in schools; besides the pool would fur- 
nish amusement for boys during winter months as well 
as summer, keeping them off the streets, from playing 
truant and benefitting them in other ways. They will 
be necessary at all events in schools which have pub- 
lic baths and convenience stations fitted up in them, 
and it will never be a mistake to make a swimming 
pool a standard part of every school equipment. 

School The 

Kitchens for teaching of 
Domestic domestic 

Science science 

— cooking — 
is now an established branch 
of education, and in schools 
where cooking is taught, a 
room must be fitted up as a 
kitchen, with sinks for draw- 
ing water and cleaning dishes, 
ranges for cooking the food 
and heating the water, tables 
for the pupils to work at, and 
all the usual utensils, fixtures 
and fittings common to equip- 
ments of that sort. These 
kitchens can be put to 
different uses in the future, 
when the public school 
buildings are put to the many 
uses they finally will. For 
instance, what would be 
better for the country as a 
whole, and the cause of edu- 
cation in particular, than to 
have each girl make her own 
graduating dress, and the class 
in general prepare the refresh- 
ments served at the graduation exercises and dance? 



revolutionary and socialistic? In cities where cook- 
ing is taught in the schools, the school authorities 
do not hesitate to provide foodstuffs for the students 
to cook, and eat if they see fit ; then why should they 
refuse to provide a like or even greater amount for 
the underfed school children? 

The same good end would be attained in either 
case, and the necessity would justify the expenditure. 
If any further justification be needed, however, let it 
be had in the good that will follow the teaching of 
food values and posting the growing generation on 
pure foods, and how to detect doped food stuffs. 

No more important subject could be taught 




SHOWER BATHS IN A NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC SCHOOL. 
Any school building in the country can be fitted up likewise at com- 
paratively small cost, and with lasting benefit to future generations. 



Lunches for Then there is another reason 

the School why kitchens will be required in 

Children schools of the future. At the present 

time it is safe to say that two per 
cent, of the children attending school are hungry. 
This not only causes mental inefficiency, for nobody 
can work or study to the best advantage while tor- 
tured by the gnawing of hunger, but it is furthermore 
one of the causes of crime. Why, then should not the 
public schools serve a wholesome noonday lunch to 
the pupils, even though the practice would seem 



in the public schools than the proper feeding of the 
human race, how to market, how to buy, and how to 
prepare foods in a wholesome and nutritious way. 
The cost of this department would come back a 
thousand fold to every individual, and come back 
direct in saving of bills, greater energy derived from 
pure and wholesome foods, so nobody could or would 
object to the outlay. The meals prepared would then 
be a by-product of this department which has already 
paid for and justified itself, so nobody can object to 
feeding the children with them, when doing so makes 
better individuals and better citizens of them. For 
fear it might be thought socialistic to act on this sug- 



SCHOOL SANITATION 




DEMOCRACY OF THE COMMON DRINKING CUP. 

The way untold thousands of children 
found early graves before the danger was 
understood and guarded against. If you have 
a little child in the home, protect her from 
illness and possible death by insisting on a 
water of unquestioned purity and wholesome- 
ness, and drinking fountains which will not 
undo all the other good work of Sanitation 
by spreading contagion from cup to lip. 

gestion, it might be well to record here that in the 
City of London, England, the practice is in force at 
present. 

Drinking It goes without saying that no 

Water for drinking water should be supplied 

Schools to schools which is not perfectly 

sterile and wholesome in every re- 
spect. Because a water is sterile is no indication that 
it is wholesome, for distilled water is perfectly sterile, 
yet it is not wholesome or beneficial when used daily. 
It lacks the natural salt necessary to a potable water and 
shows very well what is meant by the statement that 
wholesomeness as well as purity is desired. Unfor- 
tunately, there are no means for pre-determining 
what is a wholesome water. The purity of the water 
can always be determined by analyses, but whether 
or not the water is wholesome can be determined only 
by the experience of others who have used the water. 
In cities, where the water is supplied through the 
city mains, there is no alternative but to use the water 



so provided, whether wholesome or not. Cities have 
not arrived at that advanced stage, yet, where they 
make a distinction between the quality and quantity 
of water supplied. To them, water is water, whereas, 
as a matter of fact, there is as much difference between 
waters as between the different supplies of any other 
merchantable commodity. Look, then, to the quality 
of the water to be supplied to the schools, and if there 
be a choice of supplies, choose that which is best from 
a wholesome standpoint. A water which is wholesome 
can be made sterile — but of course no water no matter 
how wholesome would be accepted unless the source 
was above suspicion; for at its best, there is more ill- 
ness enters a building by the water route, than ever 
entered by way of the sewer. 

Water Of course the water must be 

Filters sterile. If the supply delivered 

through the mains is not filtered, 
then in each school a filter should be provided. It 
will not be necessary to filter all of the water entering 
the school, however, but that only which is used for 
drinking, cooking and like purposes. 

Right here, though, is where it is necessary to 
sound a warning against many of the so-called "filters" 
on the market. Among the little household filters 
which depend upon a porous stone or porcelain cylin- 
der to purify the water passing through, not one of 
them can be considered of any value in ordinary 
practice. True, the Pasteur-Chamberlain filter will 
give a perfectly sterile filtrate for a short time, but 
even this filter, the peer of its kind, must be taken 
apart and the parts sterilized in a hot oven every few 
days or it will be no better than the rest ; and it would 
never get such care and treatment in any school 
building. Most other filters of this type are at 
their best, worse than useless, as bacteria multiply 
in passing through them, so that the filtered water 
contains several times the number of bacteria con- 
tained in the raw unfiltered water. 

The little strainers screwed on a faucet, and 
called by courtesy "filters" are of no value whatever. 
They are not good strainers even, holding back only 
the coarsest of materials. 

Operation There are filters, however, sand 

of Filters filters, which when properly looked 

after will give a pure drinking water. 
These may be either "pressure filters" through which 
the water to be filtered is forced by its own pressure, 
or "gravity filters" located at a higher elevation than 
the fixtures supplied, and through which the water 
percolates by gravity. 

But even these filters will not give a sterile water 
unless a coagulant is used with them. That is, a 
chemical, usually sulphate of alumina or sulphate of 



SCHOOL SANITATION 



iron, automatically fed to the raw water before it 
enters the filter. This coagulant forms a jelly-like 
layer on top of the sand which entangles and holds 
back any suspended matter, including bacteria, 
brought in contact with it. Without the coagulating 
apparatus and the jelly-layer, the process is simply 
a straining one, and the water will not be sterile, 
although it will be clear and suitable for the swimming 
pool and like uses. 

In school work, therefore, particular care should 
be exercised, not only to provide coagulated apparatus 
for the filters, but to see that the apparatus is kept 
supplied with coagulant and in good operating con- 
dition; and that the filters are cleaned at suitable 
intervals — a simple matter affected by reversing the 
flow of water — otherwise the water will be no better 
than if no filter were used. 



district. As water is a well-known channel of infec- 
tion, and common drinking cups a mode of infecting 
the water or communicating a disease by direct con- 
tact, the use of common drinking cups, or fountains 
which require the use of them, should give way to 
the sanitary drinking fountain. Even then watchful 
care is necessary to keep the fountain from being con- 
taminated. Children like to play in water, and it 
is not an uncommon sight to see them rubbing their 
hands — sometimes very dirty hands — over the cup 
of the sanitary drinking fountain over which the water 
flows to the drinker's mouth. 

Sewage The city schools have the prob- 

Disposal lem of sewage disposal worked out 

for them in advance, in a system of 

public sewers into which the sewage can be discharged. 




Children in a large city public school drinking out of common drinking cups before bubble fountains were put in. 
Note the color democracy in this group, in which weak and strong, healthy and diseased drink together. 
Would you want your children to drink from such a cup? 



Drinking Drinking fountains of a sanitary 

Fountains type which require no cups, or else 

individual drinking cups, should be 
provided for the school children. The ordinary 
drinking fountain with one cup for the use of all the 
children is unsanitary in the extreme and goes a great 
way towards making epidemic cases of diphtheria, 
mumps, and whooping-cough, not to mention the 
possibility of communicating the bacilli of tuberculosis 
from lip to lip. In a school building children come 
from all parts of the school district, mingle together 
for a few hours, then separate; and if one child is 
affected with a communicable disease, great danger 
exists of it spreading to others, thence to the whole 



Country and suburban schools are not so fortunately 
situated, and sometimes city schools are built in the 
outlying districts before sewers and water mains have 
been extended to them. When such is the case, a safe, 
sane and sanitary method of disposal must be adopted, 
and whatever method this might be, see to it that it 
is not a cesspool. At no greater expense than the 
cost of a cesspool, a small sewage purification works 
can be installed, consisting of septic tank, aeriator, 
and sand filter, all under ground concealed from view, 
inodorous, effective, and taking up no space on the 
surface of the grounds. Further, in place of being a 
menace to the entire community and the inmates of 
the school, as a cesspool would be, and possessing 



SCHOOL SANITATION 



the additional danger of caving in when some of the 
children are walking over it, the sewage purification 
plant will prove absolutely harmless and not the least 
bit objectionable. 

Under no consideration should the old-fashioned 
out-buildings be resorted to, modern progress having 




sun beat down, and you experienced a delightful 
sense of warmth, a genial glow, while the lungs drew 
in copious drafts of cool, vitalized air. It is in those 
sunny nooks that the first flowers put forth their 
blossoms, and the first games of marbles are played, 
unconscious of the fact that the air is cold. 

The reason for this com- 
fort is found in the fact that 
you were warmed by radiant 
heat a peculiarity of which is 
that it will pass freely through 
space without raising the tem- 
perature of the air through 
which it passes. It warms 
the body, but not the air, so 
that while comfortably warm 
one can breath the cool in- 
vigorating air. 

In mid-summer we have 
the other condition or method 
of heat. The sun beats down 
fiercely on wall and pavement, 
warming them to an uncom- 
fortable degree. The air 
passing over these surfaces is 



BUBBLE FOUNTAINS WHICH REPLACED THE COMMON CUP IN A LARGE SCHOOL 
A cup which had been used in a high school, for several months without having been 
washed — a disgusting fact in itself — was found upon examination to be lined inside with a thick brown 
deposit. Under the microscope this deposit proved to be composed of particles of mud, thousands of 
bits of decaying skin, dead epithelial cells, and millions of bacteria. To determine the virility or harm- 
lessness of this sediment, some of it was injected under the skin of a healthy guinea pig. Forty hours 
later the pig died and an examination showed pneumonia germs had caused the death. Another pig 
inoculated with some of the sediment from the same cup, developed tuberculosis. 



made these no longer 
necessary, if indeed they ever 
were; and for sanitary 
reasons, as well as for the 
reasons before mentioned, 
they should no longer be 
tolerated. 

The Heating In con- 

and sidering the 

Ventilation methods of 
of Schools heating and 

ventilation 
to adopt for schools, the first 
two principles to keep in mind 
are that there are different 
kinds of heat; and that it is 
well to consider the heating and ventilation separately, 
not as one combined system, as is too often done. 
On an early spring morning with the temperature 
somewhere around 50 degrees Farenheit, you have no 
doubt stood in a sheltered nook out doors where the 




heated to a high temperature and we walk about in a 
sea of hot air. Seeking the shade brings but little relief, 
for the air we breathe is devitalized, the heating evi- 
dently depriving it of some of its invigorating qualities; 
and while we gasp for air, we are shriveled up by the 



SCHOOL SANITATION 



moisture wrung from us to supply the lack of normal 
humidity of the atmosphere. 

Quality of In the first case we have the 

Heat condition known as radiant heat, 

such as that supplied by stoves, 
direct steam radiation, or hot water heating. In the 
second case we have the condition brought about by 
the system of hot-air heating; indirect steam heating; 
and fan or blower systems of steam heating. As a 
simple principle of heating, then, direct radiation is 
unquestionably the best; but in hot-air heating and 
indirect systems of steam heating, the functions of 
heating and ventilation are supposed to be combined. 
Let us see how true that is. 

It must be admitted that with hot-air systems 
and indirect steam heating, air is introduced to the 
buildings in a continuous stream, and after use passes 
out again through specially provided vent ducts. But 
ventilation — real ventilation — is more than passing 
a stream of air through the various rooms of a building. 
The quality of the air must be considered, and unless 
the quality is good, the ventilation is poor, no matter 
how large a supply is provided. 

School The ideal ventilation, of course, 

Ventilation would make the interior of buildings 
like the world outside. That is a 
standard, however, we can hardly expect to attain, 
although we can strive for it. In none of the com- 
bined systems of heating and ventilation can this 
condition be even approximated, for as the walls, 
floors, ceilings and contents must be heated, and the 
heat loss supplied from the heated air, the air must of 
necessity be heated way above the temperature at 
which the rooms are to be maintained. Heating the 
air above, say 70 degrees Farenheit, robs it of some of 
its vitality, and when the air is heated by passing over 
the hot iron plates of a furnace — sometimes red hot — 
or through steam coils having temperatures of from 
212 degrees to 300 degrees Farenheit, it seems to be 
"burned" if the expression may be used. At all 
events, some of the more volatile and health-giving 
elements are burned out or driven off, leaving a poor 
air of low quality. 

The thing to do then is to separate the heating 
system from the ventilation system, making them 
entirely independent of each other, yet working in 
harmony. For instance, heat all the rooms of the 
building by direct radiation locating the stoves or 
radiators in the rooms to be heated. There will be 
no question, then, about the inmates being warm at 
all times, even when the windows are open and a flood 
of pure fresh air of lower temperature is sweeping 
through the rooms. 



For ventilation, fit up the supply and exhaust 
ducts and shafts as is now done for the heating and 
ventilation system, but instead of supplying air of 
sufficient quantity and temperature to heat the build- 
ing, send it to the rooms in a gentle stream and at a 
temperature of not over 70 degrees Farenheit, and 
containing the normal amount of humidity. Instead 
of small coils at high temperature to heat the air, provide 
large coils of low temperature, so the air cannot be 
burned or de-vitalized; you then have at no greater 
cost than for the combined system, separate heating 
and ventilation systems operating harmoniously and 
approximating as nearly as possible the radiant heat 
of Nature, and the fresh air of out-doors. 




THE BUBBLE FOUNTAIN IN A CHILDRENS' 
PLAYGROUND. 

Democracy here without the common 
drinking cup. A happy group of children just 
out of the plunge bath. Where there is such 
an attraction for them, no danger of them 
forming bad habits, keeping bad company, or 
getting into evil ways. 



In the interest of better sanitation, better heat- 
ing and ventilation, it is well to know that all our 
present methods of ventilation are, at the best, mere 
experiments; a groping towards the ideal. Until such 
time, therefore, as experience and experiment have 
determined accurately the best method of ventilation, 
it is safest to deliver to the children the air in all its 
original purity, without heating it or otherwise treat- 
ing it more than the exigencies of the case absolutely 
demand. In severe climates like the northern part of 
the United States and Canada, during exceptionally 
cold weather the air used for ventilation must, of 
course, be heated some before discharging it into the 



SCHOOL SANITATION 



rooms. The less it is heated even then, the better; 
while in all cases it would seem the best policy to 
supply more radiant heat when the weather is cold 
and let the air introduced for ventilation be as cold 
as the children can stand. 

The Food To make strong, vigorous ener- 

For School getic men and women of future citi- 
Children zens, start by teaching the school 

children what to eat and drink, and 
what to let alone. Once they have these principles 
impressed on their minds while young, they will stick 
to them throughout their lives. 

More health is wrecked during the period of early 
adolescence by the "foods" eaten and drug habits 
formed, than by all other causes combined. Adoles- 
cence is a critical period of childhood, when of all 
times only the best and most suitable foods should be 
taken. Unfortunately it is at this time that children 
err the most against the laws of hygienic eating. The 
girls take too large quantities of candy — seldom 
pure — soda water, "soft" drinks often containing 
habit forming drugs, greasy "shop" pastry, and coffee. 
The boys feeling the call to do something "manly" 
take to cigarettes and alcohol. 

It is a mistake to try and overcome this tendency 
of boyhood by pointing out the dangers of alcohol and 
nicotine. It is the very fact that they risk health 
which gives to the acts the element of daring, and 
makes them in their own eyes heros for taking the 



risk. If you want to get boys to do a certain thing, 
tell them it is dangerous. The love of adventure or of 
risk and daring, will lure every boy with good red 
blood in his veins to do the very things pointed out 
for him to avoid as dangerous. 

The way to control them is to lead them, not try 
to frighten them with a mental picture of the conse- 
quence of their acts. In the flush of youth, health and 
strength, every boy has a certain contempt for the 
agencies of sickness and accident, and feels immune 
from illness of any kind. They are too remote in his 
consciousness to affect him. They might overtake 
others, but he is different. 

But every boy has his blind side — his easy avenue 
of approach, and that is his admiration for and desire 
to be an athlete. That is the cord to play upon. 
Girls, too, have their pardonable weakness — the desire 
to be pretty and attractive. 

Teach them, then, that perfect health is the first 
requisite for the fulfilment of these ambitions, and 
that perfect health can be had only when the blood 
coursing through their systems is absolutely pure. 
Even then there will be a difference in their relative 
strength and beauty, but no one can be strong and 
attractive without pure blood in their bodies. 

Pure blood cannot be had if unfit food is eaten 
and cheap candy, highly-colored soda water, doped 
"soft" drinks, greasy pastry, excessive meat, coffee, 
tea, tobacco and alcohol, are among the articles which 
must be classed as unfit foods. 



J& 



MYOMERE ©*™ IRATIHI 



Authors Note: — As bathing has a beneficial or injurious effect on the system 
according to whether it is rightly administered or improperly taken, it is necessary 
that teachers and school authorities know the various effects of different baths, 
so that children, — particularly weak children — can be guided to a proper use of 
water which will build up, not tear down. So that this information will be readily 
available, it is here made part of School Sanitation. Every teacher should read it. 




iTRUCTURE of the skin.— If the 

section of a piece of healthy skin be 
viewed through a microscope it will 
be found, as shown in the illustration, 
to be a many-functioned organ instead 
of a mere covering to protect the external surface of 
the body and support the internal organs. The 
outer, or scarf skin, will be seen to be made up of 
numerous scalelike cells of a horny consistency, 
which are being shed constantly and replaced by 
younger cells from below. Immediately beneath 
the outer, or scarf skin, is a layer of pigment cells. 
It is the difference in quantity and color of pigment 
deposited in these cells which gives to different 
races their characteristic colors. 

Indenting this pigment layer at frequent inter- 
vals, so frequent, in fact, that fifty-seven thousand 
may be grouped together in one square inch of 
space, are little elevations, or centers, where blood 
vessels and nerve fibers terminate. Underneath the 
terminal of nerves and blood vessels is the true 
skin, which is sensitive. Beneath the true skin 
are fat cells embedded in fleshy tissue. Bedded 



deep in the true skin 
glands with their little 
the various layers to 
The roots of hairs are 



are a myriad of sweat 
ducts leading through 
the surface of the body, 
likewise embedded in 





Microsopic View of Healthy Skin. 

the true skin, and the stems extend out through 



oil ducts, which serve to conduct forth the oil secreted 
by the glands. 

Oil A sectional view through an 

Glands oil gland, oil duct and hair is shown, 

greatly enlarged, in the next illus- 
tration. The root of the hair has its origin below the 
gland, where it communicates with a nerve cell to 
give it the sensation of touch, and with a blood 
vessel to supply it with nourishment. 

The Up through the center of the 

Hair oil gland grows the hair and passes 

out to the surface of the skin, through 
the little oil duct, through which the gland pours 
forth its lubricating and softening 
fluid to the surface of the body. 
Oil glands, which are quite numer- 
ous, are scattered over the entire 
surface of the body, a gland and 
duct being found wherever there 
is a hair, as well as in many 
places where there are no hairs. 
The total number of hairs on the 
human body may be judged from 
the fact that there are estimated 
to be one hundred and twenty 
thousand hairs on a normal scalp. 

Sweat More important, perhaps, than 

Glands the oil glands and ducts are the 

numerous sweat glands embedded 
in the skin and the minute ducts which conduct their 
fluids out of the body. On the cheeks there are only 
about five hundred and fifty sweat glands per square 
inch; on the forehead there are twelve hundred glands 
per inch, and on the soles of the feet and palms of 
the hands, where they are the most numerous of any 
part of the body, they number as high as twenty- 
seven hundred per square inch. The little sweat 
tubes where they pierce the outer skin of the palms of 
the hands can be seen by a microscope dotting the 
curves, circles and whorls which make up the intri- 
cate patterns of the skin. These tubes can be seen, 
greatly enlarged, in the succeeding illustration. 
According to careful computation there are about 




HYGIENE OF THE BATH 



m 





one million five hundred thousand sweat glands in 

the entire body, the total length of which has been 

variously estimated at from 23^ to 28 lineal miles. 

When the number is conservatively 

estimated, however, the total 

length of perspiratory tubes will be 

found in the individual of average 

size to be less than 3 lineal miles. 

If the coils of the little sweat 

glands shown in the illustration 

' '. _ ' were unraveled and stretched out 

Sweat Pores m Palm 

of Hand m a straight line it would be 

found that the combined 
length of sweat duct and coils 
of the gland measured about 
one-fifteenth inch. If the total 
number, one million five hundred 
thousand, were then placed end 
to end, they would be found to 
measure about 166,666 lineal 
inches, or 2.63 miles in length. 

It will be noticed that near 
the mouth of the tube the little 
sweat ducts are not straight, but 
take a tortuous or spiral course, 
like the coils of a spring or the Sweat Glands and Ducts 
spirals of a corkscrew. 

Functions When speaking of the skin, 

of the not only the scarf-skin and 

Skin cutus, or true skin are meant, 

but likewise are included the 
various organs, glands, ducts, nerves and blood 
vessels embedded in the skin. The outer, or 
scarf-skin, being intended principally as a 
protective covering for the body, is admirably 
suited to that purpose. Made up as it is 
of numerous layers of scalelike cells, composed of a 
horny substance, like the hoofs and horns of cattle, 
it is tough and will withstand an incredible amount 
of wear, while at the same time it is soft and pliable. 
This layer of the skin contains no blood vessels, so 
that it will not bleed when cut or scratched, and as 
it possesses no nerve centers is utterly devoid of feeling. 
The outer scales of this layer are constantly peeling 
off, exposing younger and more tender ones below, 
which are better suited to normal conditions. 
When, however, certain parts of the body are exposed 
to great wear — as, for example, the palms of the 
hands — a thick layer of horny scales or callus forms 
to protect those parts. The dead scales, which have 
become detached from the skin, or which hang like 
ragged particles to the surface, require periodical 
removing or they will putrefy on the body and 
perhaps clog some of the oil ducts or sweat pores. 



Effect of To keep the outer skin, or 

Oil on the scarf-skin, in a soft, smooth and 

Skin - pliable condition the various oil 

glands pour out their secretions of 
fatty matter, or oil, to lubricate the surface of the 
body. 

When for any reason the action of the oil glands 
is interfered with or the ducts become obstructed 
no oil can be poured out onto the skin, which then 
becomes harsh and rough to the touch and, probably, 
chapped. The chapped hands most boys have in 
winter weather will readily present themselves to 
most people as an example of such lack of activity 
of the oil glands, while the remedy, application of 
oil or grease to the rough parts, is simply doing 
artificially what nature does automatically, and 
without our being conscious of the fact. A turkish 
bath will likewise remedy the chapped condition by 
cleansing the surface of the skin and allowing the 
oil and sweat glands to perform their normal func- 
tions. Internal cleansing of the elementary canal 
will likewise remove the stored up impurities, and 
bring the skin back again to a normal condition. 

Pigment The pigment cells under the 

cells scarf-skin play a more important 

part in maintaining perfect health 
in the individual than would seem possible to the 
casual observer. The function of the pigment de- 
posited in these cells is to prevent the penetration 
of harmful rays of light into the deeper tissues of 
the body. The action of the nervous organism in 
filling these pigment cells when necessary for the 
protection of an individual will be recalled in the 
"tanning" of dark-complexioned people when exposed 
to strong sunlight, and the sunburn, with subsequent 
tanning, of light-colored people when exposed to the 
direct rays of the sun. From all indications, the 
pigment of skin plays some part in nutrition. 

So far as the bath is concerned the pigment 
cells are of no further interest, for the bath has no 
effect on the cells and the cells in no way interfere 
with the bath. In institutions where light baths 
are given, on the contrary, pigment, or the lack of 
pigment, in the cells would have to be considered 
for not only has the pigment, or lack of pigment, a 
direct effect on the person subjected to the light 
but, conversely, the intensity and color of light 
ought to be tempered to the color and amount of 
pigment in the cells. 

The nerve centers which terminate in little 
elevations just beneath the layer of pigment cells 
impart to the skin the sense of touch, so that it 
will be sensitive and respond to influences of heat, 
cold, electricity or friction. The blood vessels, 



HYGIENE OF THE BATH 



working in harmony with the nerve centers, drive 
the blood from the surface of the body at times, 
then, responding to some reaction, like heat or 
massage, draw it again to the surface and the skin 
takes on a healthy glow. 

Functions of Of the numerous functions per- 

the Sweat formed by a healthy skin there is, 

Glands perhaps, no one gland, duct or ves- 

sel which plays a more important 
part than the little sweat glands. Through their 
pores these little glands, when in a healthy condition, 
throw off from the blood about two pints, or two 
pounds, of waste matter daily. In doing so the action 
of the glands is continuous, not intermittent, and the 
waste matter thrown off is generally in the form 
of invisible vapor, though when the body becomes 
warm from exercise or through excessive tempera- 
ture of the atmosphere the vapor becomes visible 
in the form of perspiration. In this respect the 
sweat glands perform the glandular functions of 
the kidneys, and when the sweat glands refuse to 
perform their functions an extra burden is imposed 
upon the kidneys. This in itself would not be so 
serious a matter if the sweat glands and kidneys 
performed the same functions and were interchange- 
able in that respect, as they seem to be. As a matter 
of fact, however, they are not, for the function of 
the kidneys is to void fluids of an acid reaction, that 
being the normal reaction of urine, while the sweat 
glands excrete an alkaline solution, that being the 
normal reaction of perspiration. By exciting either 
of the organs they can be made apparently to per- 
form the function of the other, but it is extremely 
doubtful if they actually do so. By exciting the 
sweat glands the fluid which would normally be 
voided by the kidneys can be carried off from the 
system in the form of perspiration; but what be- 
comes of the poisonous or deleterious acid constitu- 
ents of that urine — are they carried 
Interchange- off likewise by the sweat glands, 
ability of func- which were not designed for the 
tion of Sweat purpose? It would seem not; and, 
Glands and if not, such impurities will remain 
Kidneys in the blood, accumulating with 

time, until the health of the indi- 
vidual becomes undermined. On the other hand, 
by exciting the kidneys much of the fluid required 
for perspiration may be carried off as urine. But, 
as the kidneys are intended only to filter out the 
acid wastes, what becomes of the alkaline matter 
which should be carried off through the sweat ducts? 
It would seem that each of the organs — the kidneys 
and the sweat glands — have separate and distinct 
functions to perform, and that one cannot success- 
fully perform the functions of the other; even if it 



could it would seem an unwise policy by neglect of 
the person to require the kidneys to carry off daily 
the two pounds of matter ordinarily excreted by the 
sweat glands, or the sweat glands to carry off the 
waste ordinarily voided by the kidneys. That the 
kidneys or other organs cannot carry off the poisonous 
matters excreted by the sweat glands is proved by 
the fact that if the skin be varnished death will 
quickly result, due, no doubt, to the retention of 
some poisonous substance the nature and production 
of which are not understood ; while the kidneys can 
be put out of service for a much longer time without 
fatal results. 

Comparison To say that the sweat glands 

of matter throw off two pounds of matter 

thrown off by daily in the form of invisible per- 
skin, kidneys spiration is to state a fact without 
and other interpreting it. The bald state- 

organs ment lacks perspective to show its 

true size and proportion. A better 
understanding of this important function of the sweat 
glands can be had when it is known that the average 
amount of matter voided by the kidneys in twenty- 
four hours is approximately two and one-quarter 
pounds, or but slightly more than that thrown off 
by the sweat glands; while the solid fecal matter 
discharged by the average person in twenty-four 
hours is less than one-quarter pound and the vapor 
carried off by the lungs during the same period of 
time is approximately one pound. 

There is another function of the skin in which 
the sweat glands play the most important part, 
and that is in maintaining a uniform and normal 
temperature of the body under all the variations of 
temperature to which individuals are exposed so 
that, whether in the tropics, near the equator, or 
in the frozen north searching for the pole, the tem- 
perature of any individual would remain constant. 
The reason why temperature remains constant is 
because when exposed to a temperature greater 
than 98° Fahrenheit, or when the body temperature 
is raised by exercise, the little sweat ducts open wide 
their mouths and pour forth a stream of moisture 
proportioned to the temperature or the exertion. The 
cooling effect of this moisture evaporating from the 
surface of the body keeps down the temperature, 
which otherwise would rise to a dangerous or fatal 
degree. Owing to this wise provision of nature man 
can live without the least discomfort when exposed 
to incredible extremes of dry heat. 
Temperature For instance, a man can sit with 
man can complete immunity in a hot-air 

withstand bath raised to a temperature suf- 

ficiently high to bake bread or 
cook meat, and men have habitually sat without 



HYGIENE OF THE BATH 



the slightest inconvenience in the hot room of a 
Turkish bath where the temperature was 240° Fahr- 
enheit, or 28° above the boiling point of water. 
Many instances could be cited of persons whose 
occupations exposed them to temperatures of from 
250° to 280° Fahrenheit for long periods of time, 
and others who have endured temperatures of 360° 
Fahrenheit for shorter periods of time, but these 
may be dispensed with and the case of Chabert alone 
mentioned. Chabert, who was known to the public 
as the "Fire King," was in the habit of entering an 
oven, the temperature of which was from 400° to 
600° Fahrenheit, and remaining there a considerable 
length of time. 

When exposed to a temperature of less than 
normal body heat, on the other hand, the sweat 
glands cease pouring forth their fluid, there is con- 
sequently no evaporation from the skin to reduce 
the temperature of the body, and the internal com- 
bustion is required to furnish only enough heat to 
replace that lost by radiation and convection. It 
will be observed that when a person suffers from a 
fever, the sweat glands are closed, and the skin rough 
and dry. 

In addition to the functions of the skin already 
enumerated the skin possesses also a respiratory 
function, giving off a small amount of carbon diox- 
ide and taking in a small quantity of oxygen. In 
this respect the skin performs to a slight extent 
the function of the lungs. The skin can also absorb 
slight amounts of water and other fluids, but these 
last named functions are of no great importance 
from the bathing standpoint. 

Benefits of Bathing is beneficial to a person 

Bathing in a number of ways and affects, 

more or less, all of the glands, 
vessels, fibers and cells of which the skin is composed. 
These, in turn, react upon the large and more im- 
portant organs of the body, thereby toning up the 
entire system. As has already been mentioned, dead 
scales, or cells, are constantly being shed from the 
outer surface of the scarf-skin. Some of these scales, 
however, are not cast off at once, but cling to the 
younger cells beneath or hang in ragged fragments 
to the body until removed by friction or other mechan- 
ical means. These scales are dead organic matter 
and unless removed will putrefy on the person, 
besides, in many cases, interfering with or obstructing 
the oil ducts and sweat pores. The putrefactive 
bacteria engaged in breaking down the skin scales 
might contain, among their number, some harmful 
kinds which would cause illness or death if intro- 
duced to the body through a puncture of the skin. 
It will be readily seen, therefore, that a bath of any 
kind, taken regularly, will remove this skin as fast 



as it is shed, thereby preventing the mouths of oil 
ducts and sweat glands becoming clogged by cast-off 
materials; will soften and remove the dead or dying 
skin which clings to the younger cells beneath, and 
will keep the skin physically, if not surgically, clean, 
thereby minimizing the danger from infection through 
a cut or bruise. 

The beneficial influence of water not only upon 
the skin but likewise upon the nervous and circu- 
lating systems, as well as the internal organs of the 
bather, is due principally, to the temperatures of the 
water in which the bath is taken. Baths must, there- 
fore, be considered according to their temperatures 
and modes of application, and the effect of hot and 
cold baths as well as vapor and hot-air baths will 
next be explained. 

Cold-water Generally speaking, it may be 

Baths said that the effect of a cold bath 

is to close the pores of the skin, 
contract the capillaries, driving the blood from the 
surface of the body to the interior, leaving the skin 
white and bloodless. The functions of the skin being 
thereby temporarily arrested, the temperature of the 
blood rises from 2° to 4° Fahrenheit, which is equiva- 
lent to fever heat. Immediately after the bath, 
provided it has not been prolonged to an unreason- 
able extent, a reaction sets in, the sweat pores of the 
skin open, the capillaries expand and the overheated 
blood rushes back to the surface, bringing with it a 
healthy glow and a grateful feeling of warmth. So 
long as the healthy reaction can be induced, cold 
baths are beneficial to an individual, but if the skin 
remains white or turns blue the shock is too great 
and a warmer bath should be resorted to. 

Baths in water from 65° to 55° Fahrenheit are 
considered cold, and anything below 55° Fahrenheit 
is considered very cold. Very cold baths cannot 
be borne long without ill effect, and baths which 
lower the temperature of the skin to 9° Fahrenheit 
may be endured for a very short time, but any 
further reduction of the temperature is liable to 
prove fatal. Baths in water from 80° to 65° Fahr- 
enheit are considered cool baths. 

When immersed in a bath of cold water the 
temperature of which is above 50° Fahrenheit there 
is a diminution of the temperature of the skin and 
tissues near the surface of the body and the tem- 
perature of the blood rises about 4° Fahrenheit. 
At the same time there is a slight shock experienced 
from the water, and if the cold is intense it induces 
a feeling of numbness in the skin, which becomes 
pale, due to contraction of the capillaries, which 
sends the blood to the internal organs. 

As would be expected the cold bath likewise 



HYGIENE OF THE BATH 



affects the central nervous system and the heart 
and lungs, as may be seen by the tremor of the limbs, 
the gasping for air, and the general depression which 
follows, due to the pulse beat becoming weaker. 
After the bath reaction sets in bringing blood and 
warmth to the surface of the body. The colder the 
water and more powerful the depressing effect the 
quicker and more active will be the reaction, pro- 
vided the individual is strong enough to withstand 
the shock. 

Tepid Any bath taken at a tempera- 

Baths ture between 80° and 92° Fahren- 

heit is a tepid bath. The effects 
of the tepid bath arc not so numerous nor so far 
reaching as those of other temperatures, so that 
tepid baths can lie borne for hours without ill results. 




Spray treatment by overhead shower heads, 
any force, and various combinations can be rapidly 

The effects of the tepid bath are confined to the sur- 
face and do not reach the internal organs or nervous 
and circulating systems. There is no reaction what- 
ever following the tepid bath, and the body and blood 
temperatures remain unchanged. On account of the 
absence of shock or stimulus of the internal organs 
tepid baths are best for people of weak constitutions 
or weak hearts. They are the least beneficial of all 
the baths, however, for those of strong, robust con- 
stitutions, as their beneficial influence is confined 
simply to cleansing the skin. 

Warm Temperatures from 92° to 98° 

Baths Fahrenheit include those of the 

warm bath. There is no difference 
in effect between a warm bath and a hot bath; the 
only difference is in the degree of action and reaction 



excited. In the warm bath the effect is not confined 
to the surface, but is propagated to the internal 
organs, which causes an increased flow of blood to 
the surface and an increased frequency of the pulse 
beat. It seems likewise to stimulate slightly the build- 
ing up or renewal of new tissue. 

Hot A bath at any temperature bc- 

Baths tween 98° and 104° Fahrenheit is a 

hot bath. When a person is im- 
mersed in a hot bath a transfer of heat takes place 
from the warmer to the cooler medium — that is, 
from the hot water to the bather — while at the same 
time the evaporation becomes checked, and the com- 
bined effort of the transfer of heat and checking of 
evaporation increases the body temperature of the 

bather. . ,, a . 

In the effort to keep 

down the body temperature 
the capillaries expand and 
blood rushes to the surface 
of the body, the skin be- 
comes congested and the ac- 
cumulated body heat finally 
bursts forth, causing a profuse 
perspiration, while at the 
same time the pulse beat 
increases and respiration 
becomes quickened. It will 
thus be seen that in a hot 
bath the nervous and circu- 
lating systems become 
affected, which in turn react 
upon the internal organs. 
After the bath reaction sets 
in, the capillaries contract, 
all excess blood leaves the 
surface and the air at 
ordinary temperature feels 
cold to the skin. 



Any temperature, 
alternated. 



Comparison In comparing the effects of hot 

of Hot and and cold baths upon normal indi- 

Cold Baths viduals it might be stated as a 
general rule that the effects are 
opposite to each other; cold baths, on the one hand, 
tend to check perspiration, while hot baths favor 
it. It is believed, but not conclusively proven, that 
cold baths, by stimulating the internal organs, 
increase the reaction of the gastric and other fluids 
of the stomach and alimentary canal, while hot 
baths, on the other hand, tend rather to retard such 
activity. All baths, whether hot or cold, but 
particularly the latter, favor the secretion of urine. 
Hot baths cause dilation of the capillaries and 
a rush of blood to the skin. When the stimulus 
of heat is withdrawn the capillaries contract 



HYGIENE OF THE BATH 



and all excess blood flows away from the skin. 

The cold bath, on the contrary, first contracts 
the capillaries and forces the blood to the interior, 
then when the reaction sets in the overheated blood 
flows back to the skin through the dilated capillaries. 

A warm bath raises the temperature of the body 
by transferring heat to it and at the same time pre- 
venting evaporation and radiation of heat from the 
body. The cold bath reduces the temperature of 
the surface of the body by withdrawing heat from it 
but raises the temperature of the blood. 

The hot bath draws the blood to the surface 
while the cold bath drives it to the interior. In 
either case there is increased oxidation, or waste 
of tissue, but with the warm bath there is less demand 
made upon the system, because oxidation depends 
chiefly upon increased heat, which in this case is 
supplied by the water. The reason that a hot bath 
seems refreshing to an exhausted person when he 
could not take a cold one may be that the heat 
supplied by the water helps 
the process of oxidation with- 
out any tax on the system. 

The hot bath can be 
borne longer than a cold 
bath and a tepid bath can 
be borne longer than either. 

Vapor S o f a r 

Baths the effects of 

water baths 
only have been considered, 
no mention having been 
made of vapor or hot-air 
baths. It should be borne 
in mind, however, that 
the body bears changes of 
temperature of air, or even 
of vapor, much better than it 
does of water, because water 
being a better conductor of 
heat than either air or vapor 
brings more heat to the body 
or carries off a greater 

amount, as the case may be, than would air or 
vapor of equal temperature. 

The vapor bath, on account of the less specific 
heat, does not act as quickly as water on the body, 
but once the action does begin it causes a profuse 
perspiration and acts powerfully in cleansing the 
skin. Vapor baths can be borne hotter than water 
baths, but not for so long, for the vapor being of 
higher temperature than the bather, and being 
charged with moisture, not only prevents evapora- 
tion from the skin but likewise radiation from the 



body. In consequence of this the temperature of 
the vapor bath, while far less than that of the hot- 
air bath, heats the blood considerably more, besides 
impeding the respiration by depositing moisture 
in the bronchial tubes. A vapor bath can be borne 
for a much longer time when the vapor is not inhaled. 
Ordinarily, however, when the vapor is inhaled a 
temperature of more than 125° Fahrenheit cannot 
be borne with comfort. 

The effect of the vapor bath is much the same 
as that of the hot bath, with the one exception, 
perhaps, that it causes a more profuse perspiration, 
and in that one difference lies the greater value of 
the vapor bath. The vapor bath is the chief feature 
of the Russian bath, while hot-air or radiant heat is 
the distinguishing feature of the Turkish bath. 

Hot-air Hot-air baths possess all the 

Baths advantages of the hot- water bath, 

and some other advantages that 

hot-water baths, as well as other forms of bathing, 




Soothing patientsjby means of flowing water in the bath tub. The 
most violent cases are generally soothed to sleep in a short time by this 
simple means. 

do not possess. It is those latter qualities which give 
the hot-air or Turkish bath its hygienic value. 

One feature of the hot-air bath lies in the air 
which is inhaled. Unlike the air of a vapor bath 
it is not charged with vapor, so that moisture cannot 
be deposited in the bronchial tubes. Indeed, on 
account of the dryness of the air it increases instead 
of retards the evaporation from the lungs, while, 
being of a higher temperature than the body, there is 
no tax on the system heating the inspired air. 

The greater benefit of the hot-air bath, no 



HYGIENE OF THE BATH 



doubt, is due to the profuse perspiration it induces 
without raising the temperature of the body over 
several degrees Fahrenheit. This profuse perspir- 
ation is beneficial in several ways. By exciting the 
glands it keeps them in a healthy and active con- 
dition; the fluids they pour forth flush the millions 
of little sweat ducts so that they will be perfectly 
clean, and last but not least, the fluid poured forth 
in the form of perspiration carries in solution waste 
products of the cell activity so that the blood is 
purified by the process. 

It is in its function as a blood purifier, then, 
that the hot-air or Turkish bath differs most from 
ordinary baths, and it is in this function, that the 
chief value lies, for any other from of bath will clean 
the person, stimulate the organs and excite the circu- 
lating systems. 

Routine The Turkish bath, as now 

of the practiced, consists first of exposure 

Turkish Bath of the naked body to dry, hot-air 
or radiant heat until a profuse per- 
spiration has been induced; next massage followed 
by a thorough scrubbing, with brush, soap and hot 
water; then a cooling shower to close the pores, 
which may or may not be followed by a cold plunge. 
The last stage consists of drying the body and 
resting. 

Of the various operations undergone by a 
bather the exposure in the hot room is the most 
important and the massage is of the least benefit. 
When properly performed, massage is of real benefit 
to a person, but slapping of the body with open 
palms to make a loud noise as commonly practised 
in Turkish bath houses, is of little or no value. 

In its simplicity, then, the Turkish bath con- 
sists of exposure in the hot room, followed by knead- 
ing, rubbing, massage and a thorough washing, and 
this simple operation can be performed in the house 
as fully and with every bit as much benefit as in a 
public Turkish bath house, provided in addition to 
the ordinary bath room, there is a hot room or cab- 
inet in which to induce perspiration. In the public 
bath room, however, numerous rooms and accessories 
are necessary in order to accommodate a number of 
patrons at one time and make the operation of 
bathing a luxury as well as a benefit. 

Routine The Russian bath, as now prac- 

of the tised, differs but slightly from that 

Russian Bath of the Turkish bath, the chief dif- 
ference being in the use of a vapor 
room instead of the hot-air room used in the Turkish 
bath. After exposure in the vapor room until a 
perspiration has been induced the bather is put 



through the operations of kneading, rubbing, mas- 
sage, scrubbing, shower, plunge, drying and rest as in 
the former case. 

In most Turkish bath establishments a vapor 
room is provided in addition to the hot-air rooms, 
so that patrons may take either a Turkish or a 
Russian bath, or combine the two. 

Vapor and hot-air baths are so beneficial to a 
person that it is to be regretted that provision is 
not more frequently made for them in the public 
schools, where they would be available for the public, 
either free or for a very small fee. The matter would 
be simple to effect, for a small room could easily be 
provided and fitted with means for heating and 
ventilating, so that the citizens as well as the children, 
could have both the benefit and the luxury of a 
Turkish Bath. 

Effect In the treatment of the ailing 

Produced by with water, different effects are pro- 
Water duced according to the temperature 
Treatment of the water used and the method 
of application. Insane people, when 
violent, and highly nervous people, when irritated or 
unstrung, are soothed and soon put to sleep by placing 
them in specially fitted bath tubs through which water 
is allowed to flow continuously. 

Other effects are produced by spraying the 
patient from Sprinkle Heads arranged over the 
operating tub, while elaborate hydrotheropatic cab- 
inets are made for applying the water to a patient 
gently or with force, at any desired temperature or 
alternating suddenly from one extreme to another, 
such, for instance, as from hot and mild to cold and 
with force. 

Effect of Children are often confused by 

temperature the caution not to go bathing when 
when bathing feeling warm, and the apparently 
conflicting practice of following a 
hot bath immediately with a shower or play of cold 
water. The difference, however, is in the condition 
of the blood. When the body and blood are over- 
heated, as for instance, walking a long distance in the 
sun, on a hot day, to the old swimming hole, the 
child should cool down to about normal tempera- 
ture before venturing in the water. Nature is trying 
to drive the heat out of the body as fast as generated, 
while a cold plunge checks the effort of nature and 
turns it back on itself by closing the pores and driving 
the blood from the skin to the already overheated 
internal organs. After a hot shower on the other 
hand, the heat of the body is only surface heat. The 
hot shower has not heated the blood so that the effect 
on the internal organs is due to the reaction taking 
place in the skin. 






;yi3 



HYGIENE OF THE BATH 



Use of A distinction must be made 

soap in between bathing and washing. The 

bathing devotee of the morning dip or the 

daily bath takes it, not because he 
is so dirty that he needs a scrubbing, but for the 
tonic effect, and to remove the scarf skin and impuri- 
ties by friction and washing. The daily use of soap, 




THE DOUCHE BATH 

From this control cabinet the operator can apply the water to a 
bather in any desired way. As a spray or in a solid stream; hot, cold or 
intermediate, or any combination of these extremes. 



however, is not necessary, indeed is objectionable, 
particularly if it contains free alkali, as it is liable to 
cut the natural oil on the surface of the body intended 
to lubricate the skin, and have in general, the same 
effect as frequent washings with strong soap would 
have on the hair of the head. 



Frequent bathing, then, should be sparing of 
soap. 

Indeed, the Japanese — and no race has a better 
skin, take them as a whole — owe it perhaps as much 



to not using soap as to their practice of bathing daily. 
Instead of soap they use a bag of rice bran, or at least 
most of them do now, and all of them did formerly; 
but the Japanese who are in touch with foreigners are 
now beginning to adopt the soap habit to a greater 
or less extent, a practice which might prove ruinous 
to their velvety skins if they use it daily. 

Soap, of course, has its 
use. When the bath is for 
purposes of cleanliness, 
soap may be freely used. 
The morning dip, or cold 
bath, however, is for tonic 
effect, not for cleanliness 
only to a slight extent; and 
for a tonic bath no soap is 
needed. Instead, a stiff 
bristle brush or a bag of rice 
bran will prove not only 
more comfortable, but of 
lasting benefit. Friction of 
the brush or rice bag will 
modify the shock of the cold 
water, and at the same time 
remove from the body the 
dead skin — scales hanging 
thereto. 

The Romans, when 
bathing was at its height in 
Rome, used to complete the 
bath by annointing their 
bodies with oil, sometimes 
scented oils or oils and 
perfumes. Olive oil and al- 
mond oil, also it is believed 
cocoanut oil, were used 
for this purpose; and the 
practice when properly followed is no doubt a bene- 
ficial one. However, before the practice becomes 
general and is followed in our vigorous and excessive 
American way, it would be advisable to find out first 
which of the vegetable oils are the best, and how fre- 
quently and in what amounts their use is beneficial. 
Injury, and even death, might follow the use of unsuit- 
able or impure oils or ointments, as oils are absorbed 
through the skin, and in this way find their entrance 
to the blood. For the present, therefore, it is just as 
well not to encourage the use of oils after bathing. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 463 962 7 W\ \ 



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